Helena Melero1, Susana Borromeo1, Alexandra Cristobal-Huerta1, Eva Manzanedo1, and Juan Antonio Hernandez-Tamames1
Neuroimaging experiments on grapheme-color
synesthesia have provided evidence of structural and functional peculiarities
in the synesthetic brain and several explanatory models have been proposed.
Nevertheless, data from other modalities are needed in order to test their
predictions. For the first time, we investigated brain activity in response to
olfactory stimuli in multiple synesthetes. Results showed differential activity
in areas that participate in high level visual processing, memory, language,
lexical meaning and emotion. These findings suggest that the Conceptual
Mediation Model and the Emotional Binding Theory may be complementary and
reinforce the idea that meaning and emotion are intrinsically related
processes.
